What if there really is not a tablet market? Only an iPad market?

[rockymtnhigh]

I think google can't get the I release, i.e. Ice cream out the door fast enough. Once they have the merged desktops (i.e. a common scaling interface layer) the market will truly heat up.

Unlike some, I prefer the 7" form factor for a tablet. I find the 10" pads cumbersome and bulky for long term comfort. That's not to say I wouldn't buy one, but that's my experience. I have a nook color that's been rooted so I'm not just standing on the sidelines.

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I have a 7" tablet (Gal Tab) and an iPad, and I agree the 7" form factor is more comfortable, but I prefer browsing on the iPad, as I can view full web pages. But the Kindle reader is easier on the Tab than the iPad.

For me the question with ice cream will be how functional it will be; I hope they do a better job than they did with Honeycomb.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Posted this in the other table thread, but relevant here too:

The failing of Android as a tablet platform | ZDNet


My one comment: How on earth could Moto ship a device with a SDCard slot that did not work? Its not like EVERY phone they sell doesn't have the exact slot?

 

[mike123abc]

That article was interesting. Which again highlights a basic problem. Why buy anything but an iPad if you do not know what is going to happen with another device. With the iPad you have a known feature set, and complete top to bottom support for the platform. With others you are at the mercy of whoever built the tablet, and they do not really have much control over the OS, and Google does not appear interested in taking over either.

The other tablets may match price features, or are even a better deal, but why would a consumer risk buying them if they do not know what support (i.e. upgrades) are ever going to be available?

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Agreed. I kick myself for having spent money on the Galaxy Tab because at the time my anti-Apple bias precluded me to think of the iPad.

And lets add this into the mix: for market share, iPad controls about 98% of the tablet market.

comScore Introduces Device Essentials

 

[LostBoyinVA]

I disagree with the premise of the article. The difference in capabilities and pricing is part of what makes the Android tablets different then Ipads. But an android tablet that has the capabilites you want. Want a Micro SD slot, but one with a working Micro SD lost. Want USB capabilities get one with USB. I agree Motorola failed in providing a capability that doesn't function, but Android as a whole failing as a tablet platform. I strongly disagree. I like my ASUS Transformer and wouldn't give up the capability to use widgets for locked down IOS.

 

[TheForce]

Agreed. I kick myself for having spent money on the Galaxy Tab because at the time my anti-Apple bias precluded me to think of the iPad.

Well, OK, I guess you are now a happy ipad owner. You have converted to an appliance device for your routine consumption as a lifestyle change and gave up the idea that a tablet has to be a laptop replacement in order to work for your needs. We all live and learn. Heck, in my retirement, I'm actually learning to use a consumer camcorder. I miss the professional features but don't miss lugging around 25 pounds of camera plus 250 pounds of support gear. Maybe in another year, you'll be buying stock in Apple and retire, like me! Or did you already take my advice and start buying last year?


For those who don't know, like Lost BoyinVA- The ipad has both an SD slot and a USB 2.0 slot but it is an adapter set you have to buy to adapt the ipad proprietary I/O to the USB and SD card slot. Of course it is not a universal i?O because you need an app to access the SD card content and an app to use the USB device. Initially, these two adapters were for input of media files but there have been some other creative uses by applications too. I'd rather have an adapter that works rather than a slot for a card that doesn't.
Question on the micro SD slot- Can you plug in a standard SD card? I don't think so. Adapters only go from standard slot to mini to micro slot. Not the other way around. So if I have media on a micro SD card I can plug it into my ipad with an adapter. If I have a device with a micro slot ( like my thunderbolt ) and get handed an SD card, I cant do squat! Ipad for a tablet is fairly universal with accessories. That is the advantage of a device that has a standard formfactor making it profitable for 3rd party and Apple to develop accessories.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Don, I kick myself less for getting the Tab, then spending $600 or it, now that it sells for half that today.

I use the iPad AND I use the laptop, depends on my mood, and where I am. Right now I am using the macbook pro. I can still write more quickly, but every day starts and ends with my iPad. Newspapers and email in the morning, Kindle at night.

And the Tab still gets used by my wife, so it is not totally abandoned.

 

[mike123abc]

I disagree with the premise of the article. The difference in capabilities and pricing is part of what makes the Android tablets different then Ipads. But an android tablet that has the capabilites you want. Want a Micro SD slot, but one with a working Micro SD lost. Want USB capabilities get one with USB. I agree Motorola failed in providing a capability that doesn't function, but Android as a whole failing as a tablet platform. I strongly disagree. I like my ASUS Transformer and wouldn't give up the capability to use widgets for locked down IOS.

The premise of the article is that you are stuck now with ASUS and you are at their mercy to keep updates of Android flowing to your tablet. This is a new thing for ASUS, with notebooks/PCs they just had to build to a standard architecture and Microsoft would take care of all the software updates. Now every tablet maker has to do it for their own hardware and support every tablet variation that they make. How well will ASUS do over the long haul? No one really knows.

 

[LostBoyinVA]

Well, OK, I guess you are now a happy ipad owner. You have converted to an appliance device for your routine consumption as a lifestyle change and gave up the idea that a tablet has to be a laptop replacement in order to work for your needs. We all live and learn. Heck, in my retirement, I'm actually learning to use a consumer camcorder. I miss the professional features but don't miss lugging around 25 pounds of camera plus 250 pounds of support gear. Maybe in another year, you'll be buying stock in Apple and retire, like me! Or did you already take my advice and start buying last year?


For those who don't know, like Lost BoyinVA- The ipad has both an SD slot and a USB 2.0 slot but it is an adapter set you have to buy to adapt the ipad proprietary I/O to the USB and SD card slot. Of course it is not a universal i?O because you need an app to access the SD card content and an app to use the USB device. Initially, these two adapters were for input of media files but there have been some other creative uses by applications too. I'd rather have an adapter that works rather than a slot for a card that doesn't.
Question on the micro SD slot- Can you plug in a standard SD card? I don't think so. Adapters only go from standard slot to mini to micro slot. Not the other way around. So if I have media on a micro SD card I can plug it into my ipad with an adapter. If I have a device with a micro slot ( like my thunderbolt ) and get handed an SD card, I cant do squat! Ipad for a tablet is fairly universal with accessories. That is the advantage of a device that has a standard formfactor making it profitable for 3rd party and Apple to develop accessories.

Ok, if you have to have an adapter to use a SD card, then the Transformer can do that to. With the ASUS transform it can be done with the keyboard dock which has one built in plus 2 USB slots, a full keyboard, a track pad and an additional battery. It can also be done on the transformer with a Female to Femal USB adapter and a USB media card reader. The Transformer also supports USB hard Drives and numerous other USB devices.

Again the IPad is not the endall of Tablets. I find the diversity of Android tablets far more practical then being tied in to iOS.

 

[LostBoyinVA]

The premise of the article is that you are stuck now with ASUS and you are at their mercy to keep updates of Android flowing to your tablet. This is a new thing for ASUS, with notebooks/PCs they just had to build to a standard architecture and Microsoft would take care of all the software updates. Now every tablet maker has to do it for their own hardware and support every tablet variation that they make. How well will ASUS do over the long haul? No one really knows.

The premise of the Article was about one Android Tablet that shipped without one hardware feature enabled and did not look at in any way the other Android tablets that have been releases since then. It harped about the unavailability of a feature that the IPAD can't do at all no matter how many software changes are made. Yes it can be done with additional hardware, but some android tablets can do the same thing with additional hardware as will. It was as biased an article as I have read in quite some time.

Additionally, look at the Hardware specs for the major current Android Tablet players, just like with PCs the internal hardware is really being standardized. If you what hardware diversity look at the Android Phone market, now that is hardware diversity.

ASUS pretty much invented the Netbook market and quickly adapted to the changing netbook to tablet market. I'm willing to bet they are in it with Android for the long haul. They put out the update to Honeycomb 3.1 for the Tranformer, just a couple of weeks behind the Mortorola Xoom, which by contract with Googele has first dibs on all Tablet OS releases. Of coarse my bet in hardware is 20% less then with any other Android or Apple tablet so that certainly helps with the comfort level of the choice I made.

It is my opinion that Android and iOS tablets can and will coexist just like IPhones and Android Phones coexist and just like Windows and Apple PCs coexist. However, it is also my opionion that in the long run Android Phones and Tablets will be the equivelant of Windows in the Windows vs Apple competition for PCs. Diversity of hardware and the ability for consumers to make choices of manufacturers and price points will win over a hardware monopoly like apple always has insisted on.

 

[lparsons21]

You are correct, the iPad isn't the end all of tablets. But it seems that it IS the tablet that the consumer market wants to buy. All of your reasons for liking the Transformer over the iPad make perfect geek or desktop oriented sense, those are important things for that market. But in the handheld consumer market, not so much as the sales figures all prove at this point in time.

 

[LostBoyinVA]

You are correct, the iPad isn't the end all of tablets. But it seems that it IS the tablet that the consumer market wants to buy. All of your reasons for liking the Transformer over the iPad make perfect geek or desktop oriented sense, those are important things for that market. But in the handheld consumer market, not so much as the sales figures all prove at this point in time.

I also agree that the IPAD is the better consumer tablet. I also think the IPhone is the better consumer smart phone, but apparently the masses of Android Phone buyers disagree. I think that competion is a good thing and in the long run will be real benefactor for consumers and geeks.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I also agree that the IPAD is the better consumer tablet. I also think the IPhone is the better consumer smart phone, but apparently the masses of Android Phone buyers disagree. I think that competion is a good thing and in the long run will be real benefactor for consumers and geeks.

I own a Droid, but I wonder what the world would have looked like if when the iPhone came out, it was available on Verizon and not just AT&T.

 

[dangue]

I own a Droid, but I wonder what the world would have looked like if when the iPhone came out, it was available on Verizon and not just AT&T.

Bingo. ATT exclusivity made Droids the only viable option for Verizon and Sprint customers. We'll see what happens to market share now that the iPhone is available for Verizon.

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[mike123abc]

Bingo. ATT exclusivity made Droids the only viable option for Verizon and Sprint customers. We'll see what happens to market share now that the iPhone is available for Verizon.

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Which is why they say Apple created the demand for Android. The other carriers demanded something, anything to compete. The carriers have a big weight since they pay towards the phones. If the iPhone had been on every carrier I bet the demand for Android would have been a lot lower at first, not allowing it to gain such market share. Apple somewhat shot itself in the foot.

There are no carriers with a vested interest in the tablet market, so they really are not demanding anything to compete with Apple. The carriers do not care much since they do not have to buy tablets for their consumers.

 

[diogen]

That's one way to look at this. Here is another.

The world has about 7B people and using 5B phones. 80-90% of them GSM. The US market is 6% of it.
If you are trying to create a world brand you start with GSM. No ifs and buts.

Also, carrier as a driver of smartphone demand (i.e. subsidies) is essentially a US phenomenon. At least started as one.
Claiming that this was the vehicle behind Android adoption - filling the void - is missing the forest for the trees...

Diogen.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Android Fans flock to iPad over Android Tablets:

From Network World, reprinted in Macworld:

Research firm: Android fans flocking to iPad for tablet fix | Tablets | Macworld

 

[mike123abc]

Amazon Apparently Orders 1.2M Tablets

Maybe Amazon will give users confidence to not buy an Apple iPad...

 

[Steve Mehs]

Android accounts for 1/3 of all Q1 tablet sales.

STATS: Android accounted for 34% of global tablet sales in Q1 » Eurodroid

 

[DodgerKing]

Android accounts for 1/3 of all Q1 tablet sales.

STATS: Android accounted for 34% of global tablet sales in Q1 » Eurodroid

I wonder what accounts for that?


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